Spin behind Jessica Lynch story?

World Net Daily ^ | 5/6/03 | Diana Lynne

[Cuttnhorse]

I think this brave young woman should be allowed to recover in peace without being used as an example to support any political position.

You're too late, the political spin wheel is already in motion.

I would just like to know what really happened?

[Jhensy]

I tend to believe that the reality of her captivity was ugly and brutal, involving rapes and beatings and who knows what, and it's best that the People magazines and Today Shows and Fox News just BACK OFF.

[brownie]

I disagree. While I don't think she needs to be "used" or treated badly, I believe the truth needs to come out so that we can add it to other information to make a rational decision regarding women in the military. This does not mean disregarding her service and/or bravery. It simply means determining what actually happened and why.

[William Terrell]

Lt General Leslie F. Kenne, AF Deputy Chief of Staff for Warfighting Integration.

What is "Warfighting Integration"? Yes, there are three stars on her uniform. What does that mean and how did she get them?

Perhaps some answers could be had by reviewing some of her public comments, which are straight down the feminist line about "women in combat", of which she has seen little or none.

[joesnuffy]

When the press and the military spun the photographs of the flag raising on Iwo Jima
the propaganda value ended up destroying the lives of those used for the propaganda

The others of Pvt Lynch's party reported jammed weapons...almost immediately....

Given the past history of Iraqi's treatment of U.S. female personnel...most specifically the rape-torture of even their own women..

The truth of how she was treated may not be for publication ..ever...

To treat her now as a great female warrior ..other than just a soldier like (many others) who did her duty to the best of her ability under the conditions would be doing her a grave injustice.

And ultimately harm her....leave her alone...let her recover in her own time..with her childhood friends and family...

The worse this story gets spun...the worse it will be for her in the long run imo

Yes its nice for us to have heros...but only if the absolute truth comes out...and not some fiction spun on the keyboard of a pentangon-dacowitz nebish

[jlogajan]

Yes its nice for us to have heros...but only if the absolute truth comes out

POWs, WIAs and KIAs will always be heroes, even if the circumstances of their capture/death are otherwise mundane. They stood on the line for us and paid a high price.

[CholeraJoe]

As near as I can figure out Warfighting Integration involves making sure that all of the Command and Control functions from the front line of the battlefield to the satellites in space can talk to one another in real time and rapidly adjust as situations dictate.

I graduated from AFROTC with Lt General Kenne. She's an aerospace engineer and an acquisition executive. She participated in the test and acquisition of LANTIRN, the F-16 and the Joint Strike Fighter. She earned her rank through leadership and personal excellence.

[shhrubbery!]

I think her injuries and things done to her are much worse than reported at all! I have feared from the beginning her 'back spinal injury' may have left her paralised

Yes, the spinal injury sounds ominous. IIRC it was a lumbar fracture, and such trauma can cause problems with continence. (Sorry to be so blunt, but that's often the reality of this kind of injury, and might explain why her condition is being kept hush-hush.)

From the beginning, I've doubted that her injuries were caused by torture by the Iraqis, however. (Sounded more like her vehicle fell on top of her and crushed several bones.) I also doubted that she kept firing and "fought to the death."

Nonetheless she is an American soldier and deserves to be honored for doing her duty. What's shameful is that lies have likely been told to further a certain agenda.

[Valin]

inevitably cause people to disrespect Pfc Lynch through no fault of her own.

Not me! I pray for her swift and complete recovery.
That being said women really have no place in a frontline combat unit.

[William Terrell]

Then she should keep her mouth shut about putting her gender to work in an area she knows nothing about.

[patriciaruth]

I'm happy to learn what actually happened and why. But this story is just filling up space to take home a paycheck or score a political point, and it contains not one fact about what happened to Pvt. Lynch.

[Robert A Cook PE]

"VIP treatment" is a pure lie.

She was NOT fed, given only two drinks (in some four days) and never allowed to clean herself, nor relieve herself out of the bed .... (A bit tricky to take care of yourself with a broken back, internal injuries (from sodomy with a "blunt object ?), a busted pelvis, broken legs, and several puncture/bullet wounds....)

This is a pure lie, pushed by a lying international press "corpse" that hates Bush.

"Falls" from a truck don't break legs and arms and give internal injuries above the pelvis ... AFTER the fighting/shooting has stopped.

Torture does. Rape does. Sodomy does.

[cherry]

thank you for that...

I would guess that J.Lynch's injuries are among the most severe in this war.....but that is only a guess, and thank God she survived, not killed like so many....

it takes a big person to criticize and question and cast aspersions on a soldier who is still in the hospital and might very well have life changing injuries....yep, a very big person..

since worldnetdaily seems to want to harp on this young woman, then I would also suggest they investigate the thousands of purple hearts given out to so many, even those with the smallest of wounds or injuries....afterall, we wouldn't want the undeserving to get them......geesh

[CholeraJoe]

Do you have any evidence that LtGen Kenne has made any public statements concerning women in combat?

While we're at it, what are your military credentials? How many women have you commanded under hostile conditions? I ran an Air-Transportable Hospital in Honduras and in GW I.

[William Terrell]

I know what I've read of her statements to the press and interviews. I didn't keep track of them.

I spent four years as a Marine. I spent 13 months of that as a grunt in active combat every month of that tour. I ran patrols over mountains, sometimes with full gear, through jungles and across plains of elephant grass in 110 degree weather and monsoon, set up ambushes all night, participated in firefights with North Vietnamese and Red Chinese regulars. Every one of those activities required equal and consistent brutal strength of mind and body every sequential second.

There were no women there to command except support personel in rear areas, and few of those, due to the dangerous nature of just being in that country at that time.

I don't have to have commanded women to know that they could not have endured this type of exercise, regardless of their desires, hopes or agendas. They would have been a danger to themselves and others.

As far as I can see, we have a cup overflowing with strong healthy men. The is no point but social engineering to go near the population of women. I don't think social engineering that runs contrary to millennia of human understanding of natural law, when natural law was right out the back door, is worth the life of one innocent man or deluded woman.

Obviously this general went up the chain in the support and logistics ranks, the area where women have served often and well. I sorry if I tarnish your viewpoint of this lady, but for her to speak, with the authority of her rank, of such physical, mental, emotional hardships is absurd.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt